Abstract

Dr. Mary Redhead, a Methodist Missionary Society surgeon, in her diary entry for the evening of October 26th 1938 recorded that when the Japanese reached Hankou the city offered no resistance. Hearing detonations throughout the evening and observing fires in the city the staff of the Puai Yi Yuan went up to the roof to assess the situation. They could see the city’s burning cotton mills and the fires across the river in Wuchang. Earlier in the day a single strand of barbed wire designating the Safety Zone had been placed around an area that included the French Concession and the former British, German and Russian Concessions. Flags sporting a red cross encased by a blue circle had been hung from the barbed wire every fifteen yards and refugees were already in situ. The city waited for the Japanese to arrive.

Item Type:

Conference or Workshop Items
(Paper)

Keywords:

Medical missionaries, War of Resistance, evacuation, Sino-Japanese hostilities, Chinese history